Obviously, they tried harder from the start Thursday night.
Good theory, wrong evidence.
The USA's 4-1 victory over Kazakhstan in the Olympic hockey tournament was pretty much just a product of better organized play, not any extra motivation.
In Wednesday's 3-3 tie with Latvia, lack of effort was not the issue, the players insisted. "We were all over the ice," said forward Craig Conroy. "We had a lot of energy, but we were wasting a lot of it."
The Americans' effort was properly managed against Kazakhstan, although their offensive production dropped off substantially after the first period. In the Olympics, even winning is sometimes insufficient, because goal differential could decide seeding for the quarterfinals.
Yet after Sweden's loss to Russia, only Slovakia is 2-0 in Group B.
So the U.S. team is suddenly in decent shape going into Saturday's game with Slovakia.
"The tough games are ahead of us now," forward Mike Modano said.
Kazakhstan did not fit into that category, as the tournament's No.
11 seed - ahead only of Italy. So the Americans had no choice but to bounce back from a tie that goalie Rick DiPietro said left the team "not overly happy."
The response was to make sure DiPietro was not overworked. He faced only 12 shots, finally allowing a power-play goal with less than nine minutes remaining. Modano answered that score 51 seconds later, restoring the three-goal lead that had lasted for more than 30 minutes.
U.S. captain Chris Chelios agreed with Conroy that the players came out with "a lot of passion and intensity" against Latvia. Against Kazakhstan, they came out scoring.
Bill Guerin took a pass from Chris Drury and scored 94 seconds into the game, establishing a theme: The veterans would lead the way.
"The old guys can still play a little bit," said Drury, who's one of them. "We demand a lot from each other."
On the team's first power play, Brian Ralston quickly delivered a blast from the blue line. Brian Gionta added another power-play goal late in the first period. The Americans failed to take advantage of any of Kazakhstan's next seven penalties, but their defense was solid enough to make that inability meaningless - unless the standings remain so jumbled that every goal eventually makes a difference.
Chelios was just happy that after playing too aggressively and giving Latvia too many offensive chances, the U.S. team "cleaned that up, for the most part," he said.
The result was an easy night for DiPietro in his first Olympic start, and a hopeful sign for the team's chances in this tournament.
